November 13 is World Kindness Day. For more information you can visit Waves of Kindness at www.wavesofkindness.org.

The following quotes are meant to inspire our kindness and our social and spiritual wellness.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. -Tenzin Gyatso

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. -Robert Brault

Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up. -Jesse Jackson

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. -Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you — not because they are nice, but because you are. -Author Unknown

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. -Dalai Lama

During my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?” Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. “Absolutely,” the professor said. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.” I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy. -JoAnn C. Jones, Guideposts, January 1996

Don’t be yourself — be someone a little nicer. -Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. -Samuel Johnson

Don’t wait for people to be friendly, show them how. -Author Unknown

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. -Henry Boye

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. -George Washington Carver

The kindest word in all the world is the unkind word, unsaid. -Author Unknown

Don’t let those who take advantage of your generosity stop you from being generous. -Author Unknown

In a world full of people who couldn’t care less, be someone who couldn’t care more. -Author Unknown

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. -Epictetus

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. -Amelia Earhart

As the bus slowed down at the crowded bus stop, the Pakistani bus conductor leaned from the platform and called out, “Six only!” The bus stopped. He counted on six passengers, rang the bell, and then, as the bus moved off, called to those left behind: “So sorry, plenty of room in my heart — but the bus is full.” He left behind a row of smiling faces. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it. -The Friendship Book of Francis Gay, 1977

Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something. -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Because that’s what kindness is. It’s not doing something for someone else because they can’t, but because you can. -Andrew Iskander

A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. -Dave Barry, “Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn”

If thou are a master, be sometimes blind; if a servant, sometimes deaf. -Thomas Fuller

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him. -Booker T. Washington

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. -Nelson Henderson

In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. -Karl Reiland

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. -William Penn

If you step on people in this life, you’re going to come back as a cockroach. -Willie Davis